Super committee lineup gives hope

As markets continue to rise and dive in a post-downgrade free-for-all and lawmakers face angst-ridden constituents on the town hall circuit, Capitol Hill is looking at the lineup of the new deficit reduction super committee as a critical chance to prove Congress can function during a crisis.

The roster is nearly set, and veteran political analysts say the picks made so far show a seriousness of purpose from Republican and Democratic leaders in the Senate and House, giving a glimmer of hope that there could be a breakthrough deal this year. The committee includes a balance of party leaders, ideological warriors from both poles, wheeler-dealers and a middle-America geographical ballast, a combination that could lead to a detailed deficit reduction plan instead of the automatic cuts to defense and domestic accounts that go into effect if the committee and full Congress fail to act.

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“These are serious legislators. You go right down the line,” Jack Howard, a lobbyist at Wexler & Walker who was a leadership aide in both the House and Senate, said of the Republican lineup of Sens. Jon Kyl, Rob Portman, and Pat Toomey and Reps. Jeb Hensarling (Texas), Dave Camp (Mich.) and Fred Upton (Mich.) — all named Wednesday. “These are serious people who have been through the wars in the past and are credible, well-respected people within their conferences. It’s an All-Star cast. Murderer’s Row.”

While House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has yet to make her three selections, Jim Manley, a former top aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, called the Senate Democratic group “serious, substantive picks.”

There’s also a sense developing on Capitol Hill that rather than a bare majority — say, six Republicans and a Democrat or six Democrats and a Republican — a deal will need approval from at least eight of the super committee members to give it any serious momentum, likely two from each party in each chamber, to break through the partisanship.

“With the pressure from the economy, the pressure from the markets' reaction the last couple of days, I would think that this committee will have a lot of pressure on it not to fail, to at least come up with something,” said Bill Hoagland, a former Senate Budget Committee director who now lobbies for the health insurance company Cigna.

That’s not to say there’s uniform optimism about the prospects for the committee: The dozen lawmakers, a majority of whom must sign off on any agreement, face a daunting set of obstacles.